A Cute Little Nightmare
by Shadowdancer
Summary: Lina's sleep is filled with many interesting...dreams. Okay, just one. My first fic, posted on a website years ago, that website is now dead and gone... Fic has been revamped, for a contest that never fell through! X/L


               Ye usual disclaimer. All characters except Lixa and Lian are copyright to H. Kanzaka and R. Araizumi. Hope that satisfies the Copyright Deities...                 On with the show. 

Shadowdancer presents:   
A Cute Little Nightmare 

    Lina bent and tasted the broth she had scooped from the stewpot. It needed just a teensy bit more pepper... so she took the pepper mill and ground a few. Mixing the stew again and tasting it, she smiled in satisfaction, seeing as it was perfect.     The doorchimes rang. "Dear, could you go see who that is?" Lina asked.     "Hai, Mama-chan!!" sang a high silvery voice. The pitter and patter of tiny feet was heard as the owner of the voice ran to get the door. The chimes rang again, just before Lina heard the door unlock.     "'Touchan!!! Waiiii!" the little girl cried, and was trailed by a grunt and chuckle.     "Lian-chan! How many times have I told you not to pounce on people when you open the door?" a laughing male voice chided.     "Oh, but I knew it was you, Daddy!" Lian replied, laughing.     "Mmmm... but what if it was your _Neechan_, Lixa?" Daddy said. "What would you do then?"     The little girl laughed. "That is a secret!" she piped.     Lina turned as her husband and daughter came into the kitchen. Lian jumped from her father's arms and ran to her mother, who bent and tousled the little girl's fiery curls. "Go and check on your baby brother Zel for me, hmmm?"     "Okay!" Lian's bright ruby eyes danced with glee as she scampered off. "Zel-baby! Zelly-baby!" she sang as she ran up the stairs in childish joy.     "She's almost as energetic as you are, dear." Daddy said, setting his briefcase on the kitchen counter.     "Was I _ever_ that bad?" Lina asked wistfully as she stepped into his embrace and tipped her face up for a kiss. Then she stroked his shoulder length straight purple hair.     "Well..." Xelloss cocked his head as though thinking about it. He yelped and laughed when Lina pinched him through his business suit. He bent and kissed her again.     "How was your day at the office, love?" Lina asked, gazing up into his hidden eyes, eyes that seemed always to be squinched up in laughter.     Xelloss made a face. "The usual." He heaved an annoyed sigh. "The firm wants another hostile takeover, and frankly, I don't want another. I mean, I don't need any _more_ companies." He grumped.     Lina smiled at him coyly. "Well, if you feel up to it... I'll help take your mind off your troubles... later...."     To her delight, Xelloss opened his eyes, revealing his alluring amethyst irises. They danced with mischief as he bent and grinned at her. "As if I could ever get tired of you..." He bent and nipped at her ear, making her giggle as he pulled her against him.     "Mama-chan! I'm home!" rang out another girlish voice. The two separated a little to greet their eldest child. _Lixa,_ Lina thought,_ looks, acts and sounds like Neechan._ Indeed, their eldest daughter was practically a carbon copy of her aunt, Luna. Unlike Luna, however, Lixa's bright sapphire eyes were easy to see, and were shaped like her father's when he opened his own eyes, slanting exotically and making her look positively elfin.     "Hi dad!" Lixa greeted, standing on tiptoe to kiss her father on the cheek. "Home early." She noted.     "Yep. Had enough of the rat race for one day. Studying hard in school, I hope, young lady." Xelloss replied, eyeing her with mock sterness. He never needed to worry about her grades.     The answer was as expected. "Natch. Aced my exams. Filia, Valtierra, and Dynast want me to go with them to see a movie. We're treating Milgazia because it's his birthday today. Can I?"     "After you finish your homework and after dinner." Lina told her.     "Got no homework. Finished it all in study period. We planned a surprise party for Mil-kun, after all. Phibby's treating us all out for dinner at the mall. Can I skip dinner for once?"     Xelloss looked at Lina, who shrugged and nodded. "You're young. Go out and have fun, sweetling." She smiled, remembering a time when she too ran with the wind as her guide and whim her companion...     "I'll give you a little extra, little one." Xelloss reached for his wallet and peeled out a few bills. These he wadded into Lixa's hand. "Go buy your boyfriend an _extra_ special birthday present." Seeing Lixa's cheeks color fiercely, he grinned at her. "Don't you think I've figured it out by _now?_ I've seen those adoring glances he casts your way when he thinks no one's looking. Coming over to study almost every day…" he wagged his finger at her. "I know all the tricks, young lady, so don't think his courtship of you hasn't gone _unnoticed._"     Shyly, Lixa looked at her parents through her bangs. "So…you approve? Of us?" she asked.     Lina smiled, a strange ache in her heart, knowing her eldest had finally grown up. "Of course. He's a kind lad who looks responsible and respectable."     "Hmm…I agree. If it were that slick-as-oil _Dynast_ though…" Xelloss mused, miming aiming an invisible rifle and pulling a trigger.     "Dear…" Lina admonished, but burst out into laughter a moment later. She hugged Lixa and kissed her cheek. "So grown up… speaking of which, get dressed! Milgazia will be waiting and a girl shouldn't make her date wait too long…"     "Thanx, Ma, Dad." Lixa kissed them both before grabbing her schoolbag and disappearing upstairs.     Just then, Lian came back in, carrying a sleepy-eyed, tousle-haired baby Zelgadiss. "His nappies are wet." Lian reported solemnly.     Xelloss bent and relieved her of her burden. "I'll take care of it, love." He told his wife with a smile. He kissed his only son and wondered at the shaggy mop of blue hair that covered one blue eye. Lina grinned in thanks and kissed him again. Snagging his briefcase en route, Xelloss climbed up the stairs and into the master's bedroom....  

~******~

    "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!"     Lina woke with a start, clutching at her chest and gasping, soaked in cold sweat. "L-sama! That was some nightmare!" she breathed, running her hand through her long red hair. Already the last wisps of the dream were fading away... something about being married... with children... to Xelloss?!                 "The day I marry that jerk is the day I lose my mind!" Lina swore. Punching her pillow a few times to make herself feel better, Lina Inverse snuggled back down into the coverlets and closed her eyes.   

~******~

    In the next bedroom, Xelloss gazed up at the ceiling. "I don't know, Lina-chan..." he mused softly. "That would be a dream come true." He grinned at his own joke. With a smile on his lips, he closed his lavender eyes and wrapped the blankets around himself.... 

Fin

    A/N: Hehe. I decided to rewrite this in order to submit it to a fanfiction contest. I hope it wins and becomes a doujinshi... It's my first fic, which I wrote WAAAY back in 1997 or '98. Maybe even as early as 1996. Not sure. It was originally posted at our first website _The Crazypair's Slayers And Anime Fanfic Page_ which is now LONG DEAD AND GONE (yahoo lost it). Pretty much, we still write fanfiction, mostly still Slayers, and I don't use Windows Paint to do my art any more... I hope the people who read the original don't mind my having revised it, and have enjoyed it as much as the original. Being a mother with a daughter of my own changed my perspective somewhat...      Sincerely,     Shadowdancer 


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